Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-11-03

stock. The bank looks like q military
work and gives the railroad the appear
ance of running along the bottom of q
canal. Here and there an attempt has
been made to grow a hedge aleng the
| ridge, but the scheme wouldn't work. In
Normany the mud fence is literally made
of mud baksd in the sun as il is laid up.
1t is as solid as stone and as ugly as the
pictorial satan. A good deal of this
country needs irrigation, but judging
from the crops it must be very fertile
Of all other people the German farm
ers know how to get the most out of the
soil and best how to preserve that soil
| from deterioration. The German villag-
es are the most uninviting and their
houses are quite as honely as the tradi-
| tional mud fence. The houses are all
of simple cigar box pattern, with low
walls Of succeed brick and wide pitched
roofs. At first the house looks as if it
were all roof, closer view developing
low side walls without windows. The
gable windows furnish the necessary light
an eyelet in the roof helping out the gar
ret. These eyes in the roof have a very
queer effect and wonderful fascination
for me. They are formed by bulge in
the roof as though somebody had risen
hastily IN the night and made break
there to peep out. Together in the dark
red or moss-grown roofs they have often
had the appearance of the eyes of sleepy
cat, the pupils half hidden beneath the
dropping lid. This feline expression is
sometimes so wonderfully life-like that it
fairly startles you when flashed upon YOU
suddenly by the track. 1t seems as If the
quaint old houses were out on the watch.
Ii were German boy, / should hesitate
before climbing other peoples cherry
trees with those alert eyes upon me-but
should proudly climb after / got through
hesitating. These houses may be seen all
looking out for themselves all the way
from Vienna to Berlin. There is abso-
lutely no pretense to architecture In til
village and farm house. There is no eff
fort at adornment, no pretty gardens, no
flower beds, and if creeper hides the
uglIness of dwelling or gives it pictur-
esque effect, it is accident.
The Oldfashioned cradle is mostly used
to cut wheat, but very often the women
do the work with sickles. In either case
the straw is cut off very low. When the
field is cleared of standing grain the
women and children pass over it with
rakes or by hand picking up single straws,
and when the cleaners are through there
isn't enough left on the ground to board
M ouse for week. In many instances
| noticed the plowman following pretty
closely upon the heels of the cleaner pre-
pairing for the next crop, for the season
is short here, and wheat is sowed and
reaped about the same time. The pillow
invariably has two iron wheels, one run
ming in the furrow and one on the land
side. The end of the beam projects over
this axle in curiously elevated way, and
when woman rides the beam the outfit
has singular look to man who farmed
In America. The ground is hard and dry
now, and the woman on the end of the
beam is not an uncommon thing. She
mounts it at the dry spots and keep the
plowshare in the ground. I have ridden
pillow beams myself, and the memory Of
the shaking up I got comes freshly upon
me at the sight of these wcnen. When
woman gets too old to ride pillow
beam here she dies. After the pillow, there
comes big, strapping, bare-legged and
bare-footed girls with long handled NAL
lets breaking the big clods; they are fol-
lowed by the harrow, and when the grain
has been put in, that field is as fine as
silk. In some cases saw manure heaps
follow the disappearing grain, girls
spreading it with forks, and the plowman
crOwdlng closely on their heels. These
German farmers beat the world.
All through Austria and Germany I see
tine working dog in harness, the same as
found him first at Interlaken. The dog
here is very useful animal, and Is much
in favor with those who are too poor to
own horse-milk and other vendors
They hitch the dog in with harness the
same as they would a horse, with the tugs
hackstrap and breaststrap by which he
pulls. He wears no crupper. The dog
draws the line at the crupper and pull
back It is his business to pull. The
other fellow must do tho holding back.
Sometimes the other fellow is woman
when they can't get a dog they take a
woman-and is hitched up on the other
side of the dog, with the harness across
her breast She holds the tongue up and
guides the vehicle, and kicks the dog when
he wants to stop somewhere and get a
drink. Sometimes there are two dogs,
and the pair, driven by man or woman,
are pretty good pullers. L shouldn't care
to go to an opera behind pair of them,
however. I have amused my fancy by
picturing the state of wagon and con-
tents in case rabbit should happen to
come along. But perhaps the poor brutes
have had all the natural canine instincts
worked out of them.
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